Portal:Current events/2008 May 19

May 19, 2008 (Monday)

Suspected Sunni insurgents attack a minibus carrying police recruits near the border of Iraq and Syria killing 11 people. (AP via Google News)^{[permanent dead link]}
Edward Leigh's attempt to outlaw the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos in the United Kingdom is defeated by 336 votes to 176 in the British House of Commons. (BBC News)
In United States v. Williams, the Supreme Court of the United States upholds a law making it a crime to send messages over the Internet offering or seeking child pornography even when no such pornography exists. (Los Angeles Times)
A two-week conference in Dublin, aiming to create an international treaty banning cluster bombs, opens today. (RTÉ)
Some 6,000 people have fled a wave of attacks on foreigners in South Africa, which has left at least 13 dead, aid workers say. (BBC News)
2008 Sichuan earthquake
- Xinhua reports that 200 relief workers trying to rescue people in the earthquake have been buried in a mudslide. (AP via The New York Times)
- The People's Republic of China holds three minutes silence at 2:28 pm marking a week since the earthquake. All public entertainment events have been cancelled. (AP via Time)
A gunman kills eight people in Calamba City in the Philippines. (BBC News)
Foreign Ministers of the member states of ASEAN including Nyan Win of Myanmar meet to discuss Cyclone Nargis. (The Wall Street Journal)
Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, tenders his resignation from the country's ruling political party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). (BBC News)